Page 20 - CEMS News Summer 2020

STUDENT NEWS
First-year continued from page 19
Diana Zhang
largely experimental, so access to our lab space was crucial to getting started.
I found the transition to online courses and working from home challenging, and it took me awhile to fully adjust. The transition was quite sudden, so both students and instructors were working together at the beginning to determine how to best navigate remote learning while maintaining course quality. at the beginning.
However, the COVID shutdown has also revealed a number of positive aspects about our CEMS community. The care and deliberation that went into making the COVID protocols for lab reopening/operation as thorough and safe as possible reflects the strength of the safety culture of CEMS and the Polymer Group. Additionally, everyone has demonstrated resilience and flexibility
in adapting to the circumstances and coping with so many uncertainties for so long. I’ve been maintaining
the collaborative scientific discussions that would otherwise happen in lab or our offices with group-mates over Zoom. Our group has also adapted working and training procedures to comply with safe social distancing guidelines, for example by putting together instructional videos when possible.
Staying connected to peers during this time requires more deliberate effort, and we have continued to support each other through the challenges and celebrate the small wins. Thus, in a way, this has strengthened our connection. Personally, working through this shutdown has strengthened my adaptability with remote learning, new modes of maintaining connections, and new working conditions.
Interactions with peers, TAs, and professors felt much less organic with the online format, but I learned to take the initiative to ask for the extra Zoom sessions I needed to learn the material as well as I could.
At the very least, I think the COVID shutdown makes our graduate student experience unique. I never envisioned taking my graduate classes remotely. I never thought I would start my graduate research experience under such unusual circumstances, including limited operations and working procedures to keep everyone safe and healthy.
Clark receives UMN Outstanding Service Award – Student
Catherine Clark, a fifth-year MSE PhD candidate advised by Professor Russell Holmes, received the University of Minnesota Outstanding Community Service Award – Student, the highest honor the University of Minnesota gives to an undergraduate or graduate student who has made an extraordinary, significant, and demonstrated contribution to the betterment of society through academic studies and/or public service. This prestigious award, presented by the University of Minnesota’s Office for Public Engagement (OPE), recognizes faculty, staff, students, and University-affiliated community members who, by devoting their time, talents, and expertise to serve the public good, have made significant, demonstrable, and direct contributions to society’s well-being.
Clark was nominated by her friend and fellow CEMS graduate student Ryan Gnabasik,
for her University involvement on the CEMS Graduate Student Council (GSC) and the Institute on the Environment (IonE) Boreas Leadership Team, in addition to her community
involvement with the Giving Project led by Headwaters Foundation for Justice. The Giving Project (GP) is an innovative model that funds social change, builds community, and develops leaders. Over the span of six months when Clark was involved with the organization, a cross-class, multi-racial group of people come together to raise and grant money to organizations that support significant, long-term solutions for justice and equity across Minnesota. Clark personally raised over $15,000 for the GP, and her GP cohort collectively raised over $250,000 total, resulting in twelve $20,000 grants to MN-based organizations led by and for BIPOC (black, indigenous, and people of color) communities.
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